Posted: Jun 16, 2009 09:13 am EDT
(ThePoles.com) Sarah and Eric praised the wonderful people and country of Mongolia. They described their visits to towns and gers in the countryside and reflected on the terrain that was more difficult than they had imagined, their water concerns and the history of Mongolia.

Food and water

The two siblings visited several small towns. Sarah explained that they filled up their water bags at the local wells. The wells are very obvious said Sarah, with a couple of locals and a small herd of cows surrounding it.

From the start they took all their basic provisions with them, but planned to stop in small towns along the way to pick up treats and extras. “And we have stopped at a couple ger's for the occasional local meal, which pretty much consists of meat and more meat (we are never sure what kind of meat) with a warm drink of salty milk tea,” explained Sarah.

Town of Delgerhangay

After leaving one of the towns they found themselves among rolling hills. Sarah and Eric spent a day navigating through the hills, sometimes kiting and sometimes hauling.

The next day they hauled into the town of Delgerhangay. A young girl saw them, approached them and insisted on showing them around town.

She took them to shops, the well, a cozy ger that was home to the elders, a school where the music teacher attempted to teach them to play instruments and then to her family ger for a third cup of milk tea and cookies, and showing her family album.

When Eric and Sarah left the town they were stopped by a sand storm followed by rain. A family drove past and insisted that they take shelter in their ger. Again the two experienced the hospitality of the local people and they ended up sleeping in the neighbours ger; 12 of them and 4 baby goats.

Terrain

Eric described how they experienced the terrain. “The terrain proved more difficult than we had imagined, but it was difficult to base our imagination on any tangible evidence.”

“Even our highly detailed topographical maps barely show the extent of the hills that we climb. But so far nothing has been able to stop us, although the terrain has often made travel rather slow.”

Water concerns

“Water was by far our greatest concern,” said Eric. “How much would we consume in a day and how much could we carry with out overloading our buggies.”

“At the beginning of the trip we each carried 30 liter, enough water for ten days of moderate consumption. At this moment in time we have found that carrying less water and traveling faster has been more successful.”

“Over all water has been easy to find, there are ger's nearly every 30 km (if you keep an eye out for them) and wells or springs every 120 km.”

Some history

Sarah explained how they started planning this trip and how she read up about the history. “A country that during the days of Chinggis Khaan, his army conquered and expanded the nation from Korea to Hungary and from India to Russia.”

“Much later in 1578 Buddhism was introduced and men were sent to monasteries instead of the army. Buddhism flourish till communism took over. In 1937 the new communist government destroyed over 700 monasteries and killed over 30,000 monks in Mongolia. It's wasn't till recently in 1990, that religious freedom was regained and in 1996 that the fist non-communist government was elected.”

“Half of Mongolians live in ger's (felted tents we know as yurts) and live stock herding is the main economy. With a population of only 2.6 million people, there are around 34 million heads of live stock.”

Eric said, “In the country the people have always been kind and generous, and largely supportive of our endeavour.” While Sarah described the area as “A country with no fences and wide open spaces.”

To view a video clip click here.

ExWeb Interview with Eric McNair-Landry, "an expedition in which more decisions had to be made on the trail than during the planning”

ExWeb interview with Sarah McNair-Landry, “it was odd to have to worry about finding water”

Sister and brother, Sarah and Eric McNair-Landry and their friend Curtis Jones, all from Canada, are attempting a kiting expedition across the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. They use three-wheeled buggies powered by their kites or pulled by themselves. Previously, in 2007, the three kited together along a vertical route on Greenland and pulled sleds. They started their adventure on 16 May, but Curtis had to leave the expedition 10 days later due to family reasons.

Sarah and Eric undertook several polar expeditions with their father and mother, the polar guides, Paul Landry and Matty McNair, on Antarctica and in the Arctic. In the 2008-09 Antarctic season Sarah guided an ALE team from Hercules Inlet to the South Pole and kited back to Patriot Hills.

 EMAIL   PRINT   SHARE   TEXT